Timber prices during the first quarter of 2018 remained relatively stable, with no real upward or downward trends, but several recent developments may point to better markets ahead for tree growers, the head of one of the nation’s largest forest management firms reports.

Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services, writes in his firm’s spring newsletter that recent announcements of new greenfield sawmills in the South, coupled with planned expansions at existing mills, should lead to greater demand for sawtimber-size trees in the future.

“Increased demand is ultimately the answer to our problem of oversupply on the sawtimber side, so these announcements are positive news for tree growers,” Thomas writes.

Thomas notes that this good news involves long-term impacts. “But maybe that isn’t so bad,” he adds, because “any business that can anticipate a long trend of slowly rising prices is in pretty good shape.”

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